Monkfish is a tough, meaty fish which will stand up to the flavours of mushroom and hazelnuts, and the soya sauce gives the dish an extra kick. Make sure you buy fresh monkfish, preferably on the bone as the cooking and taste will be far superior.
Monkfish with hazelnut cappuccino and oyster mushrooms
Serves 4
50g butter
1 shallot
1 clove garlic
200ml white wine
500ml fish stock
250ml double cream
60g hazelnuts
30ml hazelnut oil
1 x 1kg monkfish tail (on the bone, skin, sinew and fins removed by the fishmonger)
100ml light soya sauce
150ml peanut oil
500g oyster mushrooms
Start by making the sauce. Melt the butter in a large saucepan until it starts to foam. While the butter is melting peel and slice the shallot and garlic finely. Add them to the pan, season lightly with salt then sweat over a low heat without colouring until soft and translucent.
Increase the heat, add the wine and cook rapidly until around 40ml of the wine remains. Now add the fish stock and continue to cook on a high heat until the stock is reduced by half. Add the cream, hazelnuts and hazelnut oil and bring to the boil. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside to infuse for 30 minutes.
Set the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4 and transfer the sauce into a vessel large enough to hold the fish.
Warm the sauce until it starts to simmer then lightly season the monkfish tail and place it in the sauce. Put the pan in the oven for 10 minutes then remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for five minutes. Remove the fish from the sauce and place it on a warm plate to rest further. Finish the sauce by blending lightly with a stick blender before passing it through a fine sieve.
Heat the soya sauce and peanut oil in a separate pan. When it begins to boil add the oyster mushrooms and cover with a lid. Cook on a high heat for four minutes; when cooked, the mushrooms will be soft and glazed.
Finish the dish by slicing the monkfish fillets from the bone – simply run a knife down either side of the bone and cut each fillet in two. Serve the fish on top of the mushrooms and pour the sauce over.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here